A total of 21 pilot projects were selected following an earlier call last year. Orange is the largest consumer with 11 projects in its network.

The federal government announced last year that it would invest money in national 5G pilot projects. Telecommunications Minister Petra De Sutter wanted to catch up because the 5G auction had been postponed for years.

De Sutter tells Belga that the 21 projects presented today represent an important stage in catching up. “It’s about innovative applications. For example, one of the projects will allow our fire and rescue services to quickly map the location of a fire by sending a drone to the location of an emergency call.”

“Another project will enable better traffic monitoring and improve road safety, thanks to instant warnings of accidents or the use of intelligent traffic lights.”

According to the minister, the projects must show the public that 5G can have a social impact in addition to the economic one.

Orange as a big eater

Orange is the main winner of the subsidy project. It made it onto 11 out of 21 projects on its network. By 2025, the telecom provider says it wants to cover at least 90 percent of the population with 5G.

Below you will find each of the eleven projects in detail:

• Mobile surgical collaboration and assistance from anywhere:
  ​Barco Nexxis live is a software solution that enables remote experts to communicate in real time with surgeons and the operating room team. 5G enables access to all data and images in the operating room and enables the external expert to communicate and give instructions via video, but also via annotations.

• Flanders Smart Fieldservices 4 Emergency, Healthcare and Public Safety:
  ​e-BO Enterprises, POM West-Vlaanderen, Jan Yperman Hospital, Howest, KU Leuven and Orange Belgium analyze different applications of 5G in the field of emergency services, healthcare and public safety.

• Flanders Smart Field Services 4 Unmand Inland Navigation:
  ​A consortium of Seafar, POM West-Vlaanderen, e-BO Enterprises and Orange Belgium will equip 3 “water trucks” with 5G and remotely optimize the captain’s skills via virtual reality.

• Remote controlled container barge:
  ​Seafar and Orange Belgium share the ambition to compare the current network to a 5G SA capacity with increased bandwidth, coverage and latency. The aim is to equip several remotely operated barges for container transport on the Albert Canal, with the option of later expanding the technology to a larger fleet.

• Flex production:
  ​EVS Broadcast Equipment, together with Orange Belgium, will set up a remote audiovisual production flow via 5G between the venue and the central production center. This increases the flexibility of remote productions and reduces costs and environmental impact.

• Communication without borders: ​i-mens and Orange Belgium will deploy a 5G network to ensure priority calls for home care workers. This instant communication supports foreign language employees in communicating using translation software and video calls with live translated transcripts. They can use this to communicate with their colleagues and superiors or customers.

• Smart City – A smart city is a safe city:
  ​Securitas, in collaboration with Robovision and Orange Belgium, will use 5G wireless connectivity to access images from multiple angles, contributing to improved “situational awareness”, “crowd control” and “mobility”.

• 5G for industrial drone inspections:
  ​SkyeBase and Orange Belgium want to jointly develop drone inspections of industrial infrastructure in a safe, efficient and high-quality way with 5G.

• 5GENIBUS:
  ​TRES.city, Keysight Technologies and Orange Belgium are collaborating to realize a 5G use case for autonomous and connected public transport in Leuven.

• Mission critical and security communications network for the Belgian Defense:
  ​The program focuses on analyzing the use of private 5G networks for mission-critical communications in the Department of Defense. These networks are used for basic operations and security, for logistical and technical support, and as part of contingency plans.

• 5G automation platform:
  ​The aim of this project is to develop automation functions for 5G use cases on a new Ericsson platform in cooperation with Orange Belgium.